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First Responder

Wednesday, February 01, 2012

In her job as an Emergency Medical Technician, my daughter
was often the first professional on the scene of an accident or health
emergency. The EMT’s job is to assess
the situation, administer immediate life-saving techniques and stabilize the
patient prior to and during transportation to the hospital. The first medical response to an emergency is
crucial to the survival of a patient in a life-threatening situation. Often, it is the quick reaction and skilled
care of Emergency Medical Technicians and Paramedics that saves people’s
lives. These “first responders” are an
important part of the total equation. Their
immediate work helps to ensure that the further medical care provided by the
waiting physician at the hospital is successful.

Just a little over a week ago, I received an urgent message
from my sister that she had just called 911 and an ambulance was on its way to
her home. My brother-in-law was suddenly
struck with severe pain in his body and had become gravely ill. When I put down the phone and told my
husband, we knew that our first response was to pray. A. J. Gordon once said, "You can do more than pray after you have prayed; but you can
never do more than pray until you have prayed."

As we come
alongside God in prayer, He allows us the incredible privilege of being
participants in His answer. Through Him, our prayers have power. “The
earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and wonderful results” (James
5:16). Prayer also calms our spirits, eases our fears and enables us to
think more clearly in an emergency. Through
prayer we know that God is listening and is already at work in the situation. Our hearts are comforted and we find the
strength to handle anything that is put before us.

So often we can
feel helpless in a situation like the one that happened to my brother-in-law,
but, by relying on God and coming before Him in prayer as our first response rather than our last resort, we will see His mighty
hand do great work in our lives and in the lives for whom we pray.
God’s word tells us that we can come
before Him with confidence and assurance that He will intervene in the
situation. He invites us to be part of
the answer by laying our requests at His feet. “Let us then approach the throne of grace with
confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time
of need” (Hebrews 4:16).

I am happy to
report that my sister’s husband is recovering well. Thanks to the grace of God and the first
responses of all those involved, he will soon be up on his feet again. As friends and family, both near and far, responded
to this emergency in prayer, God gave us all the sweet blessing of being active
contributors to His answer right from the beginning. We were not merely
observers, but rather were a united, active link with our great First Responder.

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I’m so glad you’re here! My name is Joan and I like to describe myself as an “extroverted introvert”! If I followed my natural inclinations, I’d have a lot of uncomfortable time on my hands. But, life is too short for that! I’ve made the choice to step out and step up, making connections and hopefully encouraging others as I do! I love to laugh until my sides hurt, share coffee moments with friends and sit and talk for hours. I started this blog out of my love for God with the hope I would encourage other women with the truths He has taught and is still teaching me.

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About Me

I’m so glad you’re here! My name is Joan and I like to describe myself as an “extroverted introvert”! If I followed my natural inclinations, I’d have a lot of uncomfortable time on my hands. But, life is too short for that! I’ve made the choice to step out and step up, making connections and hopefully encouraging others as I do! I love to laugh until my sides hurt, share coffee moments with friends and sit and talk for hours. I started this blog out of my love for God with the hope I would encourage other women with the truths He has taught and is still teaching me.